The present invention relates to automotive service equipment, and more particularly to computerized vehicle wheel alignment systems configured to provide a dependable and reliable computing environment for one or more vehicle service or wheel alignment software applications, and which facilitate remote updating and servicing of the vehicle wheel alignment system.
It is desirable that a computer associated with an automotive diagnostic or service system such as a vehicle wheel alignment system be compatible with local and global computer networks, such as the Internet, to exchange information with remote computers and databases. For example, the vehicle wheel alignment systems set forth and described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,370,455 B1 to Larson, herein incorporated by reference, facilitate compatibility with local and global computer networks. Computing products suitable for implementation of vehicle wheel alignment systems having Internet access include, but are not limited to, desk-top computers, laptop computers, tablet-type computers, wearable computers, and pocket-type computers, each of which is a form factor suitable for use in an automotive repair shop environment.
Computers included in traditional vehicle wheel alignment systems may provide limited access to a network of computers (e.g., LAN) and to the Internet, but generally do not integrate the Internet into associated automotive service, maintenance, repair or inspection software, such as wheel alignment applications. Instead, the computer operates in a traditional manner, configured to browse the Internet without fully integrating the Internet into the vehicle wheel alignment software applications to utilize the availability of remote access and information exchange.
Using conventional technologies means it is very difficult to guarantee a single, unified infrastructure. There is no guarantee that the remote service (i.e. software module) with which the vehicle wheel alignment system needs to communicate with at the remote system will have the proper infrastructure, i.e. it might have been modified for use with a different operating system, object model, or updated with a new programming language, resulting in an incompatibility between the vehicle wheel alignment system and the remote system.
Service-orientated computer systems, such as those utilizing ONC RPC, DCE, COM, CORBA, RMI, and JINI™ protocols, generally require special protocols for communications. For example, a COM client must use the COM protocols to communicate with a COM service. A JINI™ client must use the JINI™ protocols to communicate with a JINI™ service. Such special communications protocols are not common on the Internet, and firewalls disposed in the data communications pathway between the vehicle wheel alignment system and the remote computer may routinely block the communication.
In a service shop environment, automotive vehicle service computers are commonly used to run applications for the maintenance of vehicles. An example of such an application is a wheel alignment application. The wheel alignment application runs on the automotive vehicle service computer and communicates with one or more sensors to determine the alignment condition of a vehicle. The sensors may include a variety of direct angle measurement sensors, or may include one or more cameras configured to obtain images of objects such as targets, from which alignment angles can be determined. The wheel alignment application will commonly run within an operating system that is resident on the vehicle service computer. The operating system is responsible for managing the resources of the computer such as the memory, hard drive, keyboard, mouse, and disk files. The operating system provides a computing environment in which the wheel alignment application can communicate with the sensors, display alignment results, and accept input from the user.
Hunter Engineering Company manufactures a wheel alignment system known as the 611 Series alignment console. The 611 Series alignment console utilizes a vehicle service computer that runs a WinAlign™ alignment software application within a Microsoft Windows-98™ operating system. The Windows-98 operating system provides the essential resource management that is required for the WinAlign™ software application to function properly. However, the Microsoft Windows-98™ operating system does not provide the robustness, serviceability, and reliability desired by operators of vehicle service equipment.
When problems occurr with the alignment software application running on Microsoft Windows-98™ and other earlier operating systems, a trained technician is often required to service or maintain the vehicle service system computer. The technician may visit the shop and attempt to determine the source of the problem. The technician may look for problems with the operating system and incompatibilities between the various software applications, device drivers, and devices such as sensors or input components that were attached to the vehicle service system computer. If the technician can not determine the cause of the problem, the technician often needs to completely reinstall the operating system and the vehicle service or alignment software applications. A complete reinstallation of the operating system and various software applications is a time consuming process which risks significant data loss. In addition, any settings or customizations which have been added to the vehicle service system since the initial installation of the operating system and each software application will be lost, requiring additional time and expense to fully restore the vehicle service system to a desired configuration.
Conventional computer-based vehicle service and wheel alignment system required a trained technician to configure and maintain the installed software and hardware components. The technician is required to understand challenging personal computer concepts in order to maintain the computer system. For example, to configure a network of computers with traditional operating systems, the technician is required to understand the configuration of TCP/IP networks.
Accordingly, there is a need for vehicle wheel alignment systems and vehicle service systems in general, which employ computers configured to simplify setup procedures and to guide technicians through the process of configuring a network and other system settings without the need for specialized skills or training, and which facilitate servicing and repair of software applications associated with the vehicle service system such as a vehicle wheel alignment system.